OAR 581-015-2110: General Evaluation and Reevaluation Procedures

(1) Evaluation planning. Before conducting any evaluation or reevaluation of a child, the public agency must conduct evaluation planning in accordance with OAR 581-015-2115. (2) Notice and consent. (a) Before conducting any evaluation or reevaluation, the public agency must provide notice to the parent in accordance with OAR 581-015-2310 that describes any evaluation procedures the agency proposes to conduct as a result of the evaluation planning process. (b) Before conducting any evaluation or reevaluation, the public agency must obtain informed written consent for evaluation in accordance with OAR 581-015-2090 and 581-015-2095. (c) If the public agency refuses an evaluation or reevaluation requested by the parent, the public agency must provide the parent with prior written notice under OAR 581-015-2310. (d) Parents may challenge the public agency's refusal to conduct a reevaluation under OAR 581-015-2345. (3) Conduct of evaluation. In conducting the evaluation, the public agency must: (a) Use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information about the child, including information provided by the parent that may assist in determining: (A) Whether the child is a child with a disability under OAR 581-015-2130 through 581-015-2180; and (B) The content of the child's IEP, including information related to enabling the child to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum (or for a preschool child, to participate in appropriate activities); (b) Not use any single measure or assessment as the sole criterion for determining whether a child is a child with a disability and for determining an appropriate educational program for the child; and (c) Use technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors. (4) Other evaluation procedures. Each public agency must ensure that: (a) Assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child under this part: (A) Are selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis; (B) Are provided and administered in the child's native language or other mode of communication and in the form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally, unless it is clearly not feasible to do so; (C) Are used for the purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable; (D) Are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and (E) Are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of the assessments. (b) Assessments and other evaluation materials include those tailored to assess specific areas of educational need and not merely those that are designed to provide a single general intelligence quotient. (c) Assessments are selected and administered so as best to ensure that if an assessment is administered to a child with impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills, the assessment results accurately reflect the child's aptitude or achievement level or whatever other factors the test purports to measure, rather than reflecting the child's impaired sensory, manual, or speaking skills (unless those skills are the factors that the test purports to measure). (d) The child is assessed in all areas related to the suspected disability, including, if appropriate, health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communicative status, and motor abilities; (e) The evaluation is sufficiently comprehensive to identify all of the child's special education and related services needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the child has been classified; and (f) The evaluation includes assessment tools and strategies that provide relevant information that directly assists persons in determining the educational needs of the child. (5) Evaluation timelines: (a) Initial. An initial evaluation must be completed within 60 school days from written parent consent to the date of the meeting to consider eligibility. (b) Reevaluation. A reevaluation must be completed within 60 school days from written parent consent (or from the date the evaluation is initiated under OAR 581-015-2095(3)(c)) to the date of the meeting to consider eligibility, continuing eligibility or the student's educational needs. (c) Exceptions. An evaluation may be completed in more than 60 school days under the following circumstances documented in the child's educational record: (A) The parents of a child repeatedly fail or refuse to produce the child for an evaluation, or for other circumstances outside the school district's control. (B) The student is a transfer student in the process of evaluation and the district and the parents agree in writing to a different length of time to complete the evaluation in accordance with subsection (d); (C) The district and the parents agree in writing to extend the timeline for an evaluation to determine eligibility for specific learning disabilities in accordance with OAR 581-015-2170. (d) Transfer students. (A) When a child with disabilities transfers from one school district to another school district in the same school year, the previous and current school district must coordinate any pending assessments as necessary and as expeditiously as possible to ensure prompt completion of the evaluation. (B) The exception under subsection (c)(B) only applies if the current school district is making sufficient progress to ensure a prompt completion of the evaluation and the parent and current school district agree to a specific time for completion of the evaluation.